Mission Eastis a Danish international relief and development organisation, working in Eastern Europe and Asia. Our aim is to deliver relief aid, to create and support long-term development projects and to empower local aid organisations to carry on the work independently. Making no racial, religious or political distinction between those in need, we aim to assist the most vulnerable.

Providing life to the people of Afghanistan

Faizabad, April 8th, 2011.

When you tell people in Denmark you are going to Afghanistan for a week, you are often met with a great deal of scepticism. The media are filled with bad stories about Afghanistan. But in Mission East we know this is not the whole story: There are lots of good stories as well - stories of the many hundreds of thousands of Afghans that Mission East have helped during 10 years of carrying out projects in the remote north-eastern part of the country. When you read about the more than half million people Mission East has helped it is easy to forget that each of them represents a unique person with a unique story, and that each of them would not have had the same opportunities in life, or even be alive, were it not for the work of Mission East and our reach into remote and very difficult-to-reach villages.
Yesterday, I went to one of these places, having travelled to Afghanistan with my father, co-founder of Mission East, and my uncle, until September 2009 Finance Speaker for the ruling party in the German Parliament and a great help to Mission East in promoting our cause to German donor agencies.
Travelling to the remote village of Saray Dara, you first drive down the only bit of paved road in the province, but then turn up a steep hill and across dirt roads that most cars in Denmark would never be able or willing to travel. And afterwards – when you feel like all your bones have come out of their joints – our Province Manager Jonathan tells us that this is actually a good road, and that the roads usually travelled by the field staff of Mission East are considerably worse, and that on average our field staff travel 1½ hours in each direction when they visit the remote villages in order to carry out hygiene education, build water systems, show the villagers how to build latrines, teach them how to cultivate the land, produce honey, keep chicken or help the women run their self-help groups.
This time, I only got to see a little bit of all this exciting work – but the faces, stories and impressions will linger with me for a long time. I will retain all the good memories even when going home to Denmark and facing all the bad stories about the lovely country of Afghanistan.

With only six seats in the small aircraft travelling from the capital Kabul to the provincial capital of the north-eastern province of Badakshan, René Hartzner had to sit next to the pilot. Travelling by air is the only safe way of getting to the project area of Mission East in the remote north-eastern provinces of Takhar and Badakhshan.